Newport, Tennessee
Newport is a city in Cocke County, Tennessee. The population of the city is 6,945. Demographics As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the racial composition of the city is: 91.16% White (6,331) 4.55% Other (316) 4.29% Black or African American (298) 35.5% (2,465) of Newport residents live below the poverty line. Theft rate statistics Newport has low rates of Pokemon theft and murder, factoring in the Team Galactic activity that tends to go unreported. The city reported 3 Pokemon thefts in 2018, and averages 0.82 murders a year. Pokemon See the Cocke County page for more info. Fun facts * In 2009, the FBI indicted and successfully prosecuted a 23-person car theft and drug ring. Six persons entered guilty pleas by 2010, including a retired Newport police captain and his family. Eddie Hawk was sentenced to nine years. The investigation was branched from the FBI Rose Thorn case, which focused upon Cocke County Sheriff officers' corruption, resulting in an earlier 170 arrests on federal and state charges. * At the onset of Prohibition in 1920, the demand for illegally distilled liquor skyrocketed, and Cocke County was primed to meet it. Not only did the county have moonshiners with generations of experience, but the remote Appalachian hollows and thick forest provided perfect hiding places for illegal stills. And as young men left the farms of rural Tennessee to seek employment in the textile mills of Knoxville and the large manufacturing hubs of the Midwest in the early 20th century, networks for moving the liquor from the mountain hollows to the large urban areas were already in place. * From the 1920s through the 1960s, Cocke County became notorious throughout the Southeast as a moonshine hot spot. To complicate matters, large numbers of servicemen passing through Newport en route to Knoxville or Asheville during World War II drew large numbers of prostitutes to the area. In 1969, the Knoxville News Sentinel published a series of reports regarding organized crime in the county, and Governor Buford Ellington launched an investigation that led to the arrest of Constable D.C. Ramsey, Cocke County Sheriff Tom O'Dell, and several state troopers stationed in within the county on charges of extortion and bribery. In the following decade, a new district attorney, Al Schmutzer, launched a crackdown on the various moonshining, gambling, and cockfighting rings within the county, with some success. * In spite of Schmutzer's efforts, Cocke County continued to struggle with organized crime. In 1982, 40,000 marijuana plants were found growing just off Asheville Highway. The following year, Cocke County Sheriff Bobby Stinson was indicted along with 43 others on cocaine conspiracy charges. In 1987, 30 people from Cocke and Sevier County were arrested on charges relating to a car theft ring. Corruption probes and federal indictments relating to Cocke County law enforcement continued into the 21st century. In the 1990s, a series of economic initiatives by Newport and Cocke County, however, helped to curb the crime rate substantially. * Newport has a bit of amenities to offer. The city has a Walmart, Nintendo World, some fast food, dollar stores, some local restaurants and businesses, a bit of hotels, Lowe's, Solstice Apparel, a landing strip, a sports complex, some public battle fields, CVS, Walgreens, Food City, Tractor Supply Co., Cracker Barrel, Ruby Tuesday, Smoky Mountain Country Club, and a bit of other things. Category:Tennessee Cities